Whence [come] wars and whence fightings among you? [Is it] not thence, -- from your pleasures, which war in your members?
James asks where the quarrels among his readers come from. He does not blame their circumstances or their opponents. He points inside them. That raises two questions: what are these "passions," and is he speaking to believers, to unbelievers, or to both?
James traces the fighting to its source. It is not the people around us — it is what we want.
The Apostle has spoken of disorder and strife among the professing people of God. Now he asks where the wars and fightings among them come from. He traces the wars among the people of God to the lusts of the heart, which show themselves through the body. To gratify lust the flesh is prepared to kill and fight. In a literal sense this is true of the world and its wars. In a moral sense, if we are set on having our own way, the flesh shows no mercy. It belittles and overrides anyone who stands in the way of what we want.
Two different Greek words stand behind "quarrels" and "fights" (older translations say "wars and fightings"). One names the state of conflict, the other the blows exchanged — and blows can be words.
The words polemos and machē are translated "fight" or "fighting." Both occur in James 4:1… They roughly match the English words "war" (polemos) and actual fighting (machē, compare the Hebrew makkah, slaughter), though the war may be moral, and the fighting may be done by word of mouth.
The word behind "passions" means pleasures, and older translations use that word. These pleasures do not stay in the heart. They take over the parts of the body and use them.
Next he states the immediate cause. Do they not come from your pleasures, which fight inside your body? It was the gratification of fallen nature. The parts of the body play their part here, unchecked by God's will or the fear of Him. The throat is an open grave. The tongue is deceitful. The lips have poison underneath. The mouth is full of bitterness. The eyes are full of adultery. The hands are ready to rob. The heart leans to covetousness. The feet are quick to shed blood. How hopelessly evil, if grace had not given another nature through and according to the word of truth… And the new nature has its pleasures after its source, hating what God hates, and delighting in what pleases Him.
These cravings reach further than the body's appetites, and none of them keeps its promise.
Wars and fightings are the fruits of the old nature, the flesh… What produces fightings is the gratification of the lusts of the natural man, not the new nature, which is from above. This takes in all forms of lusts: not only those of the flesh, but the lust for power, the lust for prominence and leadership, and the lusts of the mind. "You desire and do not have." There is nothing that can satisfy the heart of man. Any lust will end in disappointment and remorse.
James is writing to people living among the twelve tribes — the Jewish nation. So the "you" reaches wider than the Christians among them.
Having commended the spirit of peace in the Christian's ways, James now asks where the wars and fightings "among you" come from. But here we must ask what "among you" means. It does not have to mean among Christians… they found themselves still in the midst of the twelve tribes, who are, I do not doubt, included in this "among you." And the Christians might find themselves implicated in these disputes, so James's appeal reaches them too. These fightings came from their pleasures. Their will was unbroken. Lust distracted their hearts. They wanted what they did not have. Conscience was silent, overpowered by lust.
The same desire works at every size. Wanting what belongs to someone else can split two people or set nations against each other.
Towards God he refuses to submit. Towards other people he envies their prosperity and covets what they own. He wants the best his neighbours have for himself, and if the chance comes he will use all his powers to seize their wealth, their land or their glory. He will not LOOK UP TO GOD to find the satisfaction that no earthly thing can give… This is one of the great causes of war and strife, whether between nations, people, or fellow believers.
James gives the remedy: ask. Fighting is what people do instead of asking God.
If our desires are right, there is no need to fight among ourselves to get them. We can ask God. Even so, we may not get an answer to our prayers, because we may ask with the wrong motive — to gratify some lust.
- Source: other people do not cause the quarrel. Cravings inside a person do, and they work out through the body.
- Scale: one root grows into settled war and into passing blows — and the blows may be words.
- Scope: the craving is not only for pleasure, but for power, prominence and leadership. None of it satisfies.
- Spread: left unchecked, the desire for what others have divides people, fellow believers and whole nations.
- Solution: ask God for what fighting cannot seize. But check the motive: a prayer driven by the craving gets no answer.
Ye lust and have not ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not.
Behind every quarrel James finds a deeper cause: a desire inside a person that nothing satisfies and nothing stops. The verse traces a chain — wanting, killing, coveting, fighting — and ends with a quiet charge: they never asked God for anything.
James is not describing wars between nations. The trouble is among the people he writes to, and even the words for it come from a world that does not know God.
These violent workings sprang from self unjudged. When they are deliberate and ongoing, we call them "wars." When they are passing outbreaks, we call them "fightings" or "battles." But they describe violence not out in the world, but among the people he addresses. The humbling fact remains: the words we use for them come from the uncontrolled ways of men who did not know God.
The trouble is not a shortage of resources but the appetite itself, working through the body's own members without any restraint from the will or fear of God.
The members of the body in this case play their part, unchecked by the will or fear of God: the throat, an open grave; the tongue, deceitful; the lips, with poison underneath; the mouth, full of bitterness; the eyes, full of adultery; the hands, ready for robbery; the heart, prone to covetousness; the feet, swift to shed blood. How hopelessly evil, if grace had not given another nature through and according to the word of truth!
Wanting and not having is not a temporary shortfall. It is what happens to a heart chasing what cannot satisfy it — and that covers far more than bodily appetite.
The gratification of the lusts of the natural man produces fightings, and not the new nature, that which is from above. This includes all forms of lust — not only those of the flesh, but the lust for power, the lust for pre-eminence and leadership, the lusts of the mind. "You desire and do not have" — nothing can satisfy the heart of man. Any kind of lust ends in disappointment and remorse.
The same hunger has a picture in the animal world.
The wild beast knows nothing of restraint upon his passions. He tears and slaughters more than enough to satisfy his cravings, and yet is not satisfied, and slaughters again tomorrow. Man in his unconverted state is like this... This is indeed the way of the world, but let us see to it that we keep quite clear of this greedy, unsatisfied spirit.
The word "murder" shocks. But it names what envy does when it wants a rival out of the way — and the whole cycle turns out to be needless.
The flesh shows itself here in all its repulsive features. There is lust that is never fulfilled. There is the viciousness of virtual murder — putting another out of the way, because the heart is filled with envy. At the same time there is frustration, with murmuring and contention. Yet how foolish and unnecessary all of this is! "You do not have, because you do not ask." God will surely answer a quiet spirit of dependent faith that simply asks of Him.
That last clause lands hardest against God's own open invitation to ask.
There is no limit, except the limit that little faith may set. God does guard His giving, so that the gift is good — and that is not a limit. The Lord backs His exhortations twice over with the promise that "everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." What a door this opens for us! What possibility of blessing! How rich we may all be, if only we will be! And yet the apostle's words could apply in the fresh early days when they were written: "You do not have, because you do not ask."
This letter does not speak to believers only. That is why the language can be so severe.
James does have Christians in view, but not Christians only. As he says himself, he is writing to the people of Israel, and not only to those in Israel who believe... So there is a word here for those among them who were plainly not born of God, as well.
Yet none of that lets a believer off. What fills the heart shapes what we ask for.
No man could seek His glory and the gratification of his own lusts at the same time. If we are near to Him, we will know how rich His giving is, and we will ask. Our knowledge of Him will guide our asking, and we will not ask wrongly.
Kelly traces where this whole course ends.
There are desires that come to nothing. There is violence taken to an extreme, and envy or jealousy in full measure, yet still no satisfaction. There is contention that keeps growing worse. There is no asking, and no answer of peace.
- Source — Quarrels start with self unjudged, and even their names come from a world that does not know God.
- Starvation — Wanting covers power, position and the mind, not just the body. No form of it ever ends satisfied.
- Sabotage — Envy pushes a rival out of the way and still gains nothing. The whole cycle is foolish and unnecessary.
- Silence — The one thing never tried is asking. God's door stands open. The only limits are small faith and His care that the gift be good.
- Solution — Nearness to God reshapes what we want, so we ask — and ask rightly.